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Clean Out Your Closet

A decluttering session can be surprisingly uplifting

A small closet that is messy and full

Steve Cole Images/Getty Images

Quick Win

Organizing your closet makes it easier to find stuff, and it might even help you feel happier.

Try This Today

Inventory your clothes. Toss any stained or heavily damaged items. Set aside pieces you rarely wear to be donated or sold.
Get rid of shoeboxes. Use shoe storage bins instead: They take up less space and make it easier to see what you have. Use this opportunity to get rid of shoes that you never wear or that are beyond repair.
Shop for storage solutions. Now that there’s less stuff in your closet, it’ll be easier to identify any problem areas that could use additional organization. For example, if you have hats piled up on a shelf, you could hang them on hooks instead. Or if your closet rod is still jammed with clothes, you could buy an add-on rod to maximize the space.

Why

Organizing your closet streamlines the space so you can find what you need, thus saving you time each morning. But this task could also help improve your outlook. In a study about procrastination and clutter published in Current Psychology in 2017 that compared survey data from 60 college students, 197 younger adults and 1,393 older adults with an average age of 54, researchers concluded that “clutter problems led to a significant decrease in satisfaction with life among older adults.”

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